Turkish anti-terrorist police have raided the offices of an aid agency on the border with Syria as part of what local media said was an operation in six cities against individuals suspected of links to al-Qaida.

Policy Notes, No. 17, January 2014 Türkçe The Washington Institute for Near East Policy Soner Cagaptay & James F. Jeffrey * In 2014, Turkey will hold two key nationwide elections: one on March 30 for local government and city officials and a second one for president, to conclude by August 28

The battle between Turkey’s Erdoğan government and its erstwhile ally, the Gülen movement, has escalated to the point where it is hard to imagine a reconciliation. Though the fight is exposing the corruption on which Erdoğan’s regime was based, Turkish democracy will be the loser – at least in the short term – regardless of who wins

The epic corruption scandal currently gripping Turkey, not to mention international headlines, is nothing less than the collapse of the entire set on a theatre stage. With that elaborately painted background suddenly gone, so too goes the context for